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enchmen in Dante’s Shoes Sentimental Journeys through Italy in Early 19th Century Literature Florian Mehltretter & Juana von Stein French attitudes towards Italy and Italian culture in the 19th century are highly ambiguous, oscillating between two positions that seem to stand in direct contradiction to one another: on the one hand, a stance of superiority over a fragmented and backward country (or, indeed, a ‘terra dei morti’),1 an attitude which, from a postcolonial theoretical perspective, might be termed ‘colonial’ and would thus preclude any form of symmetrical dialogue or mutual understanding;2 and, on the other hand, a deep admiration felt for geniuses such as Dante and Tasso.3 This article seeks to explore this paradox, drawing on some descriptions of literary journeys in Dante’s footsteps by French writers. Our aim is to show that the asymmetry, which can be observed in many Italo-French intercultural contacts of the period, and indeed in the context of these literary journeys themselves, is in some cases transcended by a new hermeneutics. This new form of transcultural understanding can be seen in connection with the ‘sentimental’ reading strategies born in the 18th century.4 On a methodical 1

Lamartine, who took up residence in Florence as a diplomat, derides Italy in Le dernier chant du pèlerinage d’Harold as a ‘land of the past’ (‘Ô terre du passé’) where humans have become ‘de la poussière humaine’. The following lines provoked not only various literary reactions (cfr. Giuseppe Giusti’s La terra dei morti), but also a duel between the Italian soldier Gabriele Pepe and the poet himself: ‘Monument écroulé, que l’écho seul habite; / Poussière du passé, qu’un vent stérile agite; / Terre, où les fils n’ont plus le sang de leurs aïeux! / Où sur un sol vieilli les hommes naissent vieux, / Où le fer avili ne frappe que dans l’ombre, / Où sur les fronts voilés plane un nuage sombre; / Où l’amour n’est qu’un piège et la pudeur qu’un fard; / Où la ruse a faussé le rayon du regard; / Où les mots énervés ne sont qu’un bruit sonore, / Un nuage éclaté qui retentit encore! / Adieu! Pleure ta chute en vantant tes héros! / Sur des bords où la gloire a ranimé leurs os, /Je vais chercher ailleurs (pardonne, ombre romaine!) / Des hommes, et non pas de la poussière humaine!’ (Le dernier chant du pèlerinage d’Harold [XIII], in: A. de Lamartine, Œuvres poétiques complètes, ed. by M.-F. Guyard, Paris, Pléiade, 1963, pp. 207–209; for the reception of Lamartine’s poem, see A. O’Connor, ‘L’Italia: La Terra dei Morti?’, in: Italian Culture, 23 (2005), pp. 31-50). 2 E.W. Said, Orientalism, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1978/1985, pp. 1 f. Cf. for this background, which cannot be discussed at length in this article, H.K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture, London/New York, Routledge, 1994; G.C. Spivak, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, in: L. Chrisman & P. Williams (eds.), Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory, New York, Columbia UP, 1994, pp. 66-111. 3 For French 19th century writers’ attitudes towards Italy, see R. Noli, Les romantiques français et l’Italie. Essai sur la vogue de l’influence de l’Italie en France de 1825 à 1850, Dijon, Bernigaud et Privat, 1928; M.-M. Martinet, Le Voyage d’Italie dans les littératures européennes, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 1996; H. P. Lund & M. Delon (eds.), L’Italie dans l’imaginaire romantique. Actes du colloque de Copenhague (14-15 septembre 2007), Copenhagen, Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 2008; É. Saliceto, Dans l’atelier néoclassique. Écrire l’Italie, de Chateaubriand à Stendhal, Paris, Garnier, 2013. 4 M. Caesar, Dante. The Critical Heritage, London/New York, Routledge, 1989, pp. 43–47, develops a similar hypothesis in a general sense of affective impact rather than the narrower concept of emotional identification pursued in this article.

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level, this article will therefore combine its ‘postcolonial’ glance at an asymmetrical intercultural situation with what might be termed an archaeology of hermeneutics. Literary pilgrimages and exoticist attitudes The literary journeys considered here, whether real or fictional, are often undertaken in a spirit of devotion and therefore sometimes described as pilgrimages. Thus, the translator of Dante and poet, Antoni Deschamps, invokes Dante’s guidance for the poetic journey of his Études sur l’Italie: De ta savante main, Dante, conduis mes pas, Et sous l’ardent soleil ne m’abandonne pas. Comme tu fus guidé dans ton fatal voyage, Guide-moi, vieux Toscan, dans mon pèlerinage.5

For Deschamps, Dante’s guidance resembles more of a reservoir of poetic images and techniques than anything else,6 and his sketches of Italy are full-blown romantic tableaux, brimming with couleur locale and even the occasional dash of the exotic,7 but they are less influenced by Dante’s actual works than Deschamps’ self-assumed role as Dante’s romantic spiritual brother might have us believe. His (partly imaginary) literary journey is less of a scientific investigation of the places and landscapes that could have shaped the work of the great Italian writer and more of